Departing governors single out difficulties their successors face — and provide guidance on how to conquer them.

IN recent years more than 40 states have offered incentives for movie and television production, recapturing “runaway” film projects that had left America for places like Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Eastern Europe. This has not only brought significant economic benefits back to our shores, but also has secured America’s most important cultural export. After all, it is through film and television that many people from other countries come to know us — our values, our expressions and our freedom.

I’m proud that New Mexico has been a leader in this effort.

Unfortunately, a new campaign is under way to curtail or even eliminate these film and TV programs in many states, including my own. Some politicians call the incentives fiscally irresponsible, or giveaways to “liberal” Hollywood. The latter charge is mere propaganda. The former gets traction in states whose programs are not well designed. But when incentives are especially effective — as they are in New Mexico, Louisiana and Michigan — they can bring huge benefits to the state economy.

In New Mexico we scaled our incentives to match our specific tax structure, and we invested in programs at our universities and community colleges to train screenwriters, directors, actors, grips, electricians, makeup artists and other film professionals. As a result, we created more than 10,000 jobs in this industry and in supporting businesses, bringing nearly $4 billion into our economy over eight years. These are huge numbers for a state with a population of only about 2.1 million — especially with the country still recovering from a recession.

Yet my state’s current administration and its legislative supporters are now trying to dismantle the program by falsely pitting film incentives against what they call “children’s” interests like education and health care, and claiming that money spent on one means less for the others. Apart from the blatant illogic of this argument — after all, any program that’s a positive for the economy benefits everyone, including children — educational programs in film and related media arts are among the most popular at our colleges and universities. They inspire more young people to graduate from high school, pursue higher degrees and ultimately get excellent jobs.

Governors and legislatures should call “cut!” on cynical efforts to kill forward-looking incentive programs for film and TV production, in New Mexico and in all other states.

Bill Richardson, a Democrat, was the governor of New Mexico from 2003 to 2011.

A version of this op-ed appeared in print on February 27, 2011, on page WK9 of the New York edition.